Thursday, December 11, 2014

Author interview with Pippa Croft!

Hi, I’m Pippa Croft and I live in
a small village in the heart of England with my husband, who I refer to as Mr
Bennet. My daughter has flown the nest now and is a scientist. I miss her a lot
but I see her every couple of weeks and on social media every day.

I studied English Language and
Literature at Oxford University – which is where the Oxford Blue series is set.

I also write as Phillipa Ashley
and one of my novels was made into a Lifetime Christmas movie a few years ago.

Tell us about your latest New Adult book and what inspired
you to write it.

I’d been dying to set a book at
Oxford for a while so finally, I sat down and wrote three!

The series follows the stormy
relationship of US senator’s daughter, Lauren Cusack and British aristocrat, Alexander
Hunt. They meet at Wyckham College, Oxford where they’re both studying Masters
degrees. There’s an instant, powerful and fiery sexual attraction between them
but Alexander has a reputation as an emotionally distant, arrogant bad boy.
Lauren is fresh out of a break up with her American boyfriend so she’s keen to
keep away from Alexander, but he has other ideas and what Alexander wants,
Alexander always gets!

The New Adult genre is fairly new. What's your definition
of it? How does it differ from Young Adult or just regular Adult books?

I think the issues the characters
face in an NA novel tend to be ‘grittier’ and more emotionally intense than in ‘chick lit’. Many readers consider the Oxford
Blue series to be New Adult because it focuses on the lives of Lauren who is
taking full responsibility for her life for the first time and going against
her parents’ wishes by studying in the UK. For Alexander, it’s different, he is
a serving officer in the British army so has already had a lot of independence and
responsibility. So far the series has appealed to all kinds of readers from die
hard NA fans to chick lit and contemporary romance readers.

Do you belong to any critique groups and/or do you have
other people read your work as you're writing it? Who's brutally honest and
who's a cheerleader? Which do you prefer?

I tend not to have people read my
work while I’m writing it, but I do run ideas by my agent and my two closest
author buddies. Together, they are a massive source of inspiration and honest,
constructive advice.

Do you outline before you write or just dive head-first
into a manuscript? Do you maintain a schedule for writing, or is it
more haphazard?

It completely depends on the novel: they’re all different.
When I was writing the Oxford Blue series, I had a strict schedule because of
the writing/editing deadlines but I’m usually more relaxed about the word
count.

Where do you do your
best writing? (Ex: desk in your office, public library, under a tree in the
park, in front of a Real Housewives
TV marathon, etc.) Do you like music or some other background noise, or do you
need quiet?

I normally have the radio or TV on in the background. I have
an office but I tend to write in the dining or sitting room as it feels less
isolated.

When you're driving
and you have a sudden, brilliant idea for the new manuscript you're working on,
what do you do?

I’d wait until I got home and write it in a notebook: I keep
small, pretty hardback notebooks for brainstorming each novel.

Imagine you have a whole day free for shopping. Where do
you go?

To Oxford, where the novel is set.
I’d visit my old college, eat out in the gorgeous old cafes and pubs and wander
around the Victorian Covered Market and bookshops.

Do you prefer to read
ebooks or print?

Both!

Where is your favorite
place in the world?

So so difficult but probably the
English Lake District where we have a holiday apartment overlooking Lake
Windermere.

Do you have any advice for people who want to write a book?

Don’t do it. Or if you do, be
warned that it will take over your life forever…

Please give us your website and any other links you'd like
included in the interview.

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About Me

Welcome to New Adult Book Reviews where our motto is On the Edge. That's because the whole New Adult genre is on the edge. In fact, it's a genre that a lot of people are just hearing about for the first time. But for those of us who have heard of it and who have dived into it, New Adult is a thrilling addition to the literary landscape.

So what exactly is New Adult? It's an exciting new fiction category about main characters who are generally 18-25 years old (give or take) and are experiencing relationships and problems that readers in that age group (and beyond) can identify with. All fiction genres can have New Adult subcategories, just like all fiction genres can have young adult books. Popular genres among New Adult readers include (but aren't limited to) fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal romance. It's the next step up from young adult books, but New Adult often contains "adult themes" and can have graphic scenes since the main characters are at least 18.